Merry Christmas

Just popped on to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope you have a great holiday and I look forward to having you back on here in 2008 where I hope to post alot more and be alot more creative!

was I creative?

well I did work on some more christmas cards which I was very happy with and I had fun making them. The windmill cards are fun to make because I get to cut squares, then fold them a couple of times and then attempt to glue them all together to make a nice windmill. It seems to have worked so far so I am happy. It makes me think of a rosette and hopefully my family will like them. I did a couple more small snowman cards as well, I got some white wrapping at the weekend with something so I have been using that for a snow effect on the bottom. I think it just adds a little something to the card. I only need to make a couple more cards to finish my family. I was going to make them for close friends as well but don't think I am going to have time so I will buy some nice cards to send to them and still continue to make snowman cards. Then I will have some made for next year already done to send to my friends :)

I also did some work in the journal I have at the moment - I tried to not to worry about what other people would think of the work but just write and add onto the page what I wanted to add. In the end it was only squares of snowflake paper and sparkly card so it is still a sparse page as such with writing but I was struck by the idea from the paper and I just decided to go with it. I thought about taking some pictures but then realised the person who's journal it is might see it. Then it madew me think about how if you never take a picture of it, its like secret work that only the other people working in the journal and the owner will ever see. Part me thought thats sad because you want to share your work with others and the other part thought wow, it means if you see it you are a part of something special.

I have a problem

a creative problem and that is that I worry too much about my work and accepting myself to just create what I want. I don't actually consider and accept I am an artist, I say I do craft bits. I worry about how my work will look compared to other people's and the style of it rather than just going with the flow and coming up with whatever is in my mind. Even now as I have been working in a journal for a journal swap. I write what I want and put bits of the page and I look at it and think "what will others think, I bet they will think it is no good" because I have mainly written on the page, than been arty on the page.
I realise that this is a block to creating some good work because the idea's never make it out of my head onto the paper. I have abused them and then discarded them without even giving them a chance to take life. I am about to leave work and I am going to finish my christmas cards and then I think I am going to just see what Idea comes into my head and run with it. Just see where it takes me. I definately will need to just experiment more and have some fun whilst on my 2 week christmas break from work!
Anyway a bit of a download from my brain :)

Journals

I am currently in a journal swap with some mailart people and I currently have seren's journal and so I have done a couple of pages worth of work in it. I have some idea's for other pages I am going to do. I am off to Panto tonight and so think I will do a page on it when I get back this evening. It will be late when I get back but I know that all the memory and excitement of the panto will be there and thats what I will want to come across in my page. We are seeing Dick Whittington and I am going with a couple of work colleagues.
I will take some pictures of my work and post them up so you can all see. I have been quite bad in photogrpahing my work and showing you all so I aim to be better with this. I think pictures help and make it much easier to comment. Plus then you can see the colours.

Rushing by

Its the 12th already and less than 2 weeks until christmas. Woohoo. Bring on the present giving. I know this is not all what christmas is about but I love seeing what I am going to get for christmas and seeing other people's reactions to the presents I give them.
I spend the 2 days of christmas working my round different sides of the family so make sure that everyone gets some christmas cheer.
This means that yes I am still behind on crafty stuff however I have 2 weeks over christmas as I have taken some vacation time and so I am hoping to enjoy having some time to just relax and have a play in a creative way.

We moved into our house at the weekend and although I am not going to permanently in it until mid february it was great fun and of course tiring. Lots of moving of Sam stuff and heading round shops whilst we had a van hired to buy a bed and a washing machine. We were putting our bed together at 10pm at night on the friday so that we at least had a bed to sleep in.
It was sad to have to leave the house, after having put alot of work into getting the house, it seemed such a shame to not be in it. But I am heading back up this weekend. We are thinking about boarding the loft and doing some gardening work so that it looks less unruly.

Christmas is coming

Now we are in December I am excited, really starting to feel it now. We watched the Santa Claus on saturday evening which I had never seen and enjoyed alot. Always good for puttin in the christmas spirit. I will be watching Elf at some point because I love that film. Not sure if I own it on DVD though. I also need to do some serious christmas shopping as although was good and got some throughout the year, I have done like zero since and therefore I am behind. Need to get on it!

I did step up and do some more work on my Christmas cards last night and so have finished some. I moved on with some of my snowmen cards and I know have 2 big ones complete and 2 small ones. Thinking that I will be getting them out to my oversea's people. My homemade christmas cards are mainly going to family as don't have enough time to make some for friends as well. But did buy some nice winnie the pooh cards so they will still get cheery cards.
I also working on some snowflake cards which involves some folding technique that makes like a giant snowflake which is not too hard to make so I am enjoying making them. I only did one last night but I am planning some more as they will look nice.
I also did some work with some peel off's which I am not always keen on working with but I think in the end it did make a nice effect and although a simple looking card, I still think it looks nice none the less.

Have been busy working on my ATC's for the christmas garland in one of my ATC groups and I am behind as want to get them off in the next couple of days and need to stitch like 12 so need to really but all my spare time into it and get them off ASAP because Erika needs to get them completed and sent off to the overseas people at least so might send those I have done and then send the 2nd batch as quick as I can!

Christmas Cards

Thats right I have finally started working on my christmas cards and I got lots done last night.

I made some bases for christmas cards -

I made 2 cool snowmen which are going to be the main feature on some of my christmas cards. This was fun, I took the concept from a card magazine which gae me the main instructions and then made it my own a little bit - the main thing being that I am changing the background on which the snowmen will go on - they are quite big snowmen but they look so cute. I just need to work out how I am going to do their eyes. Shall I get some black brads? As you can see I didn't get black brads, I just used pens to make eyes in the end.

I also started a stocking card which is cut in the shape of a stocking. Only done the basic on it at the moment, added red in the middle and then over where the white and red meet put silver glitter glue across to make it sparkle and give a nice smooth cross over as such. I need to think about how I am going to jazz up the card - they had some ideas for it in the magazine I got the main idea from but I want to do my own thing - just need to work out what I think will work.

I still have not worked out how to jazz this card up yet but have not really taken the time either.

Finally an update

Yes I have been rubbish and I apologise to you all. Mainly its being busy with work which is my main access to the internet, I could give more excuses but why, they are excuses and no fun. So on to some fun stuff. This ATC is from Michael Leigh who sent it to me which was nice as well as saying how much he enjoyed readin my blog which was also nice. I did not realise he read my blog so maybe there are others out there who read the blog but never comment. It made me happy to know some people read this rather than me doing it for no reason.
In terms of me doing art, there has been some action finally. I finally finished the puzzle piece I was for Sissy, where she sent everyone out a piece, they decorated and sent back and she is going to put the puzzle back together. I just need to get to the post office to send it and I'll be all good. I have forgotten to take a picture of it though. Music on the background and different coloured punched notes scattered across it.
I also have finished my ATC's for the bonfire swap I am hosting on Mixed Media Group and I again have not taken picture but I have not sent these yet so I will add them in the next couple of days. I used thread to make fireworks on a dark blue background. It gives a good effect.

Finally I have made a start on my H letters for a our christmas garland which is where everyone has a letter and makes in this case 17 of these letters for ATC's exactly the same. We send out letters to the organiser and then they make up the garland with each of the letters and send one out to each participant for them to hang up ready for christmas. I am cross stitching my letters with holly on them as I am doing H, to give it that christmas feel. I am planning to mount it between 2 bits of card but then I haven't decided what other decoration to add to it. But means I am going to have get stitching quick to get them sent off in time for the 1st december so everyone gets their garland in time for christmas.
So I have finally found some time to do some art but it is not enough time!

Following on....

from the last post I actually did some of what I said I wanted to do. A miracle it seems but it makes me happy. I finished off my halloween postcards which can be seen. The pictures are not great as I only seem to find time to take pictures when its dark outside thus I have to use artifical light and it never quite looks that great. We have a spider postcard which I find amusing for the googly eyes. And then a general halloween theme card which I made using some great embellishments i bought from the art shop down the road when I went recently and have so far only used the one. I have much bigger plans for my halloween makings and yet here we are with very little. I also used the cobwebs which were sent to me as part of my grab bag winnings and I though gave it just what it was missing. These postcards are going to Zoie who set up the halloween card swap on my livejournal penpal group and to Cayleigh who made this awesome halloween postcard that I wanted so I offered a swap. These went in the post only today so they probably won't get there until after halloween but I hope they are appreciated anyway. And that is why at the moment I have not made any more because they would not get to the destination in time for halloween anyway! Maybe I will make some and keep them for next year. I really need to be thinking of my christmas cards as I worked out today it is only 8 weeks and 1 day away and I have not at all started them! AHHHHHHHHHHH is what I say to that! Plus I did some more of my halloween stitching but unsure if I will have it done by wednesday. I hope so because then I can put it up and make it halloween themed as such in my room.

No Crafting

I have not forgotten you my lovely readers, I have been very busy at work and this has impacted on my art work. I have had a couple of new pieces come through and I do want to put them on here which I will try and do asap. I have things to work on I just haven't done them.
My plans are:
A paper journal to work on for ATC group where there is a big group of us involved and its going to circulate so I have the journal I just need to start.
A 5/5 hand drawn ATC swap on a USA group I haven't traded on in ages
A 3/3 Bonfire swap which I am hosting on a UK Group
Some halloween postcards which I have started but need to finish
A letter postcard which I have all planned out I just haven't made it - the letter Q.
A couple of handmade postcards to send in response to a couple I have received
and finally a cross stitch piece i started for myself which is halloween themed which I wanted to have ready to put up for halloween but not sure if I will manage it now.
So that's what I am looking to do, now I need to find the time :)

Carolyns Journal

My work in Carolyn's Journal in our ATC group round robin is totally finished and went in the post today. Which also means no more journals in this swap as that was the last one for me. Horray! I am glad because it means I have passed on everyones journ als fine and I am sure Craolyn will be very happy to have heres back. It also so sad as its the end of this however we are just starting a new journal round and I am in that one so it's all good. Also with my own journal and the one I am making for Serendipity's swap as such I am a busy journal lady.
There seemed to be an overall theme of the sea with Carolyns journal so I tried to stick to this. It was a hardback book (like tiny kiddies book) so this made it easy to work on. I firstly used acrylic paint and cotton wool to dab the paint onto the page to give a nice blue sea effect. Using the cotton wool had its issues as at times it tried to stick to the page but it worked out in the end.
I then thought that the swirl punch I had would give a good effect so i used this to make dark blue swirls. Having done that I realised the the imprint of the punch looked great and so I lined the edge of each page with this. I randomly put the swirls on the ATC side page as I knew the ATC would cover most of this page however was at 1st unsure what to do on the other side and what in fact I was going to put on the ATC. I liked the thought of waves on the pages and so I cut these out in card and then put wave upon wave on them which are lines from a biffy clyro song which I really like. Very fitting for this page.
What that left me with was an idea for the ATC, I considered a couple of lines about the sea from a well known book or poem and then I considered drawing a mermaid but was unsure how I would do that (my drawing skills are mediocre I would say). So I looked online searching on google for sea poems and found this one which is not by anyone well known - was on a site where you could vote for the poems. I though giving the poem a torn edge effect would look nice and then to join it to the pages I put blue swirls on it for a sea effect. With just this I flet it was missing something so looked at what embellishments I had from what people had sent me and found these from when Pat sent me the Yak Pak when I first joined blindswapsATC group. Seeing as its a poem about love the heart was perfect and although i couldn't find a sea related embellishment, I felt that the cog was fitting none the less. I hope that caroly likes this page, I quite like it, not the best in the journal but nice none the less. I was unsure what to do with the theme but I definately think its fitting to the rest of the journal and I think that is important. Now Carolyn will finally get her journal back and get to enjoy the wonders in it.

More Mail In

Thats right I've had more mail in, one piece for the contortionists call and some RAK ATC's so check it out.

http://seussscatpost.blogspot.com/2007/10/contortionists-and-atcs.html

Scavenger Pack

Thats right I received my scavenger pack from Bonnie in our ATC group and its great. I got some images, lots of fibres, 8 ATC backgrounds, some tacky tape which looks interesting although I am going to have find out what fun things I can do with it. As my surprise she made me this cool christmas themed mini plate, its like a mini carboard sleeve which opens up and there is a glass slide in it which is mounted in with an image behind it. As you can see its something different and she did a great job with it. She included a couple of black ones for me to have a play with so I am glad the glass didn't break during posting.

Also over the weekend I did another journal page. Nothing complicated as I was at Sams at the weekend so no supplies or anything but I like the simpleness of the page and I enjoyed just sitting there and getting engrossed in drawing - trying to make the tree as real life as possible. Drawing is not a strong suit of mine but I enjoy it none the less so sometimes its nice to just draw.

Journal Work

Having seen Serendipity's post about a journal swap I decided that I wanted to join in and so last weekend I went out and bought a journal from WHSmith. Its got thicker art paper on it and a hardish cover so I think it will survive in the post. The premise of the swap is that you work for 15 days in your journal, then let seren know, she'll give you a list of people who have signed up and will be the people who work in the journal. Everyone passes it on to the next until it gets back to you. I thought this would be great fun and I have been doing a bit more journal work, having refound carolyns from our ATC swap.

So this 1st page is about the fact that we put an offer in on a house last saturday and about how I feel about it all. I drew a standard looking house as I can do this where as attempting to draw the house I've bought would have been trickier. Its something thats very close to my heart at the moment as its my 1st house and without knowing her it will all go, some strange feelings going with it. Waiting for our offer to be accepted i've never felt so queasy and we had to wait a few hours.

This 2nd one is more of a fun page and was inspired by all the inchies talk going on. Obviously Lia's been doing squares for ages but its invaded my ATC groups as well - inchies seem to be everywhere which is fine by me as I like them. So into my head popped, every body's talkin but squares and the rest just developed. I love this page as it creates the saying in so many different directions. Make me smile.

So apart from these 2 pages I've done some work to finish off carolyn's journal - just need to add a couple of bits before I send it to her however this is going to have to wait until after the postal strike!

Time ATC's

ATC's galore. The 1st one I have had done for ages apart from the words and I just kept not getting round to it. So I finally printed a number of different sizes at work and then added it on. I really like this ATC - I think the picture is fab and I am going to send it to Pat as part of her scavenger pack.

These next 3 are all part of a "Time" swap I'm taking part in with a UK group and I had to have them sent out by Monday and I made Sunday night. I had the ideas for ages it was about finding the time to make them so when I got back from Sams sunday evening I set about creating them and I really enjoyed it. So we've got one based around a clock and the hand move round so I liked that - deciding what colour to make the clock was tough but these 2 colours just kind of found their way together when I was looking through my different colour papers. Its a nice contract I think.

Then I did one based on old means of telling time so a egg timer as such. I like the though of making the sand glittery to give the card a bit of sparkle. I know its a simple card but I like it.

Then the final one came to me as a last minute idea - so many of us these days base our time around our diaries. I hate the fact when someone asks me if I can do something I have to check my diary but its one of those facts of life. So I though a clip as such of someones diary would be a great way to show the passing of time. I made up the events so its not an actual clip from my diary but some of the things very well could be things that i'd do in a day.

Bought cute pots

I actually bought these a couple of weekends ago but finally got round to putting some stuff in one of them. I put all my buttons in them. Its great because I can see them all and the tops pop off - in terms of the side handles hold the lid down so you have to undo them. I find it amusing. I don't know what I am going to put in the other one yet. I only bought 2 but I am hoping to start gathering better storage items as when we buy a place I will want to move all my stuff into our 2nd bedroom and Sam has already pointed out he doesn't want it junked up so proper storage is the way to go!

I did finish an ATC last night but no picture at the moment. Its a lady with a big hat and then i wrote the phrase does my head look big in this. Just made me chuckle - its a great picture. I am planning to include it in my blindswap sister scavenger pack. This is something that bonnie on our ATC group set up. Everyone makes a pack which they send to the next person on the list and so everyone gets a surprise pack. There is guidelines on what needs to be in the pack and one thing is an ATC you have made. I think Pat will like this ATC. I just need to get the rest of my pack together and sorted so I can send it out. I will be sure to show you guys a picture before I send it out!

Scrapbooking

Thats right its something I have been wanting to get into for ages. I have had a subscription to a scrapbooking magazine for over 2 years (I have used idea's and papers for other stuff, I have a big scrapbook (nothing in it) and the only thing I have actually done is when my friend jenny went to Japan over 2 years ago I made her a mini scrapbook. However I am closer to actually completing my 1st page - I printed all the photo's I took from the roadtrip I went on for a couple of days with Cayleigh in the states and I bought some fun embellishments which say things like road trip and stuff on them. I do now however need to actually make the page and have I found time - not a chance. I feel good in that I am slowly closer to actually achieving it but with so many art/craft things I am working on/want to work on, it seems like it may never happen.
I guess I should really take the photo's with me and mabe try and draw a layout plan so when I do come to actually doing it - I have some idea but then without knowing excatly everything I am going to use, I might not like my layout. So many questions and few answers. Do any of you scrapbook? Do you create a rough layout design with pencil and paper 1st of just play as you go?

Apart from that I had a couple more people ask for leaflets to join in The Contortionists Mail Art call which I put in the post today - I did a little more stitching on my witch last night (although was late in from work and had tired eyes so only did a little) Hoping to get away early from work today, to head up to Bristol and see Sam. We are viewing 4 houses tomorrow as we are looking to buy which is exciting - aiming for 2 bedrooms so soon some space to store all my craft stuff - horray! I did in fact by 2 smallish nifty boxes from woolworths which one I have put my buttons in - they look great, its see through so I can see all my buttons which I like. The other I have not put anything yet but part of that again is down to time. Ahh the weekend is nearly here - maybe I will manage something this weekend!

Contortionists Call incomings

Thats right I've had a couple of pieces in for the contortionists call which I have posted on Seuss's Cats Post - http://seussscatpost.blogspot.com/2007/09/contortionists-call-incomings.html follow this link to view the pieces.

One of the ladies who sent a piece in Marlene Russum Scott currently has a mail art call going on at the moment which you can see below: -

MAIL ART CALL:
As a member of Chicago Hand Bookbinders (CHB), I plan to create a book for the annual show that will begin at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee Wisconsin in January 2008 and at Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois during the summer. I’d like to spread the word about mail art and plan to create a book that will display all mail art received through this call. The book style is called "Storage Book" and was taught to me by Hedi Kyle.

The theme for the exhibit is “Forever 29.” The theme was selected because CHB isn’t sure ifthis is the 29th or 30th exhibition. What does “Forever 29” mean to you?

If you’d like to be included in my book, here’s the info:

Theme: Forever 29
Deadline: October 15, 2007
Size: A6 flat card (4 1/2 x 6 1/4, thickness up to 1/8”)
Documentation to allPlease mail to:

Forever 29
c/o Marlene Russum Scott
204 N. Kenilworth, Unit B
Oak Park IL 60302
USA

journal page, inchies and more

Thats right, last weekend was really quite productive. I spent a little bit of time in my local library where of course i wandered round and picked out some books but I also went and sat in the upstairs quiet bit and worked on a journal page which I had the idea for quite a while ago but hadn't gotten to give a go yet. So i took my journal and pencils with me and just got on with it. I found it relaxing working there and there was nothing around me to make me think of other things i needed to do plus it was quite quiet and i generally just found it very enjoyable to work on the page there.

I might see about doing it again in the future. Its not often i get a weekend to myself so it was nice to just spend some time somewhere else.

Following on from this i designed another halloween inchie. This time its a ghost - i just drew the design out myself, trying to work out what would look like a realistic ghost as such and then started stitching. I think it turned out well. In the end i posted 3 to bonnie but I am making another set which I plan to send to someone else but I am reversing the colours. So if in bonnies set they were orange, in the other set its purple and vice versa.

And lastly i completed the halloween bear which I have now mounted on some purple card but cannot decide what I want to do with next. Do i make it into just a halloween card to send or do I go for the trick or treat bag. I think I am going to attempt to make a trick or treat bag because i think that would be more fun and something I haven't done before. Then I can send it to family in the states for them to make use of. So following on from this I have now started on my other halloween stitching which I am making for me so when I have my own place and its halloween I can get it out as a decorative picture as such. Its of this cool witch, its from a stitching magazine and I am sure I will show the progress of it on here - well definately when I complete.

Halloween Inchies

Thats right I actually made a couple of halloween inchies last night. Having got all the bits to do my halloween stitching and with an episode of House on my DVD player I set to work, creating the pattern to stitch the spider and the bad. That took a bit of time, playing around with how manay stitches and such so it looked likie it should but on a small scale. Spent ages trying to work out what angles I wanted the legs on my spider. Then i stitched them, I had already made cut the backgrounds up so it was a matter of deciding what ton put on them, i decided to draw on them and then adding my stitching. I am happy with them, i think they look cool and I hope Bonnie likes them when she receives them in our swap. I am going to try and do a couple more before sending them out to her. She's being lovely and letting me send however I make rather than have a set number - bless her.

I know the pictures aren't great and I may replace with better ones in next couple of days. I just wanted to get something up!

less paper but more stitching

as the title suggests I have done less paper craft of recent just because I haven't found the time but I have been doing a bit more cross stitching as this is something I can do whilst watching TV and therefore making me social with the family as well. If I am papercrafting - I am up in my room, mess surrounding me and therefore much more anti social.

Anyway I received my postcards back from the swap and I shall post pictures of them on my received blog as such in the next couple of days.

I finally finished some stitching for a coaster I was doing as part of a series for my family in the states so decided to do something else whilst looking for my next piece for a coaster. I had just received through the newest cross stitch mag I subscribe to and it had some great halloween pieces in them. So over the weekend I popped into Hobbycraft to pick up the threads I was missing and made a start on what you see above. This I am either going to turn into a card or I am going to make into a bag so that I can send it to my family in the states for them to put their halloween candy in. I think I like the bag idea more its just whether I can work out how to do it.

Anyway I am also going to make a halloween piece as a framed piece so that I can have it to put out around halloween - My stepdads newest wife Angie has loads of ornaments themed around seasons and special occasions. I like the idea - I have quite alot of stuff for christmas but for other stuff not really. I mean I know halloween isn't that big a thing in the UK as it is in the states but I stitch loads of things for other people and I liked the picture so I am thinking I should make something for me.

I will be sure to include pictures once I start making it!

Bank Holiday weekend

Thats right the bank holiday weekend is over and its back to work where of course it is busy. However I did find some time to do some crafting over the weekend and so I have things to show.

I finally finished my postcards for a postcard swap on one of my yahoogroups. The theme was hues & shades which meant you could only use one colour but to make best use of it by using many different shades of that colour.

The 1st one I made was the swirls one - I have a punch and I just though all the little swirls looked fab - then i though if all the little swirls made one big swirl it would be like it grew and then you could imagine it went on and on. So using different shades of blue that is what I did although it took alot of time to glue all the little swirls down.

Then i made this purple one - i liked the ideas of rain drops and then I thought if I did it in purple it would be purple rain which of course makes everyone think of the prince song. So i went with idea. I would have liked to have tried to incorporate more shades of purple but time was running short giving me a little less time to play around and see how far I could develop my ideas.

This final one was inspired from a card magazine which showed you how to make a windmill in 10 mins. It was very easy to make the windmills although I changed the size and of course the colours of the paper. I was amazed at what a great effect it created. I showed it to my fiancees Mum (she makes alot of her own cards with her friend and have their own small business as such between them) and she was saying how it could be used to make some great christmas cards - she's right - I may start playing with some different papers to try for a snowflake effect. This is definately something I am going to have a play with when I get a bit more time. Also makes me think of a rosette.

So I have sent these 3 safely off to be swapped and cannot wait to see what I get back. Who knows - I may end up sending them to people if I think it would be something they'd like!

Keep feeling bad

because I haven't updated pictures yet to include them on here to which I apologise to all you lovely people. I will do though. Something to put into action this bank holiday weekend. Thinking about what projects I haven't included pictures of over the last couple of posts and getting on it!


So how is everyone? Here in the UK its a bankholiday weekend so an extra day of work on monday - horray! Always a good thing. Plus gives time for some crafting. I have idea's and things I want to work on so must get on with them.


I was put on to the Dover samples from one of my yahoogroups so I am getting sent them every week. I looked on their website at some of the samples which helped me with an idea I had partly formed. Its not a completed work yet but involves some nice paper I bought that I though I posted about on here but don't seem to have done and a lion.

I finally finished a piece of work to send out for my colour call, a rainbow shaped card I made and it was just getting the words I wanted on it and in what order. Picture to be added at later date.

I would love to send it as it is but will put it in an envelope as the foot postcard I made which you can view in a previous post never made it to michael and I did not put it in an envelope. I want to make another postcard for michael but may put it in an envelope this time so it definately gets there. Its disappointing to have to do that but at the same time its sad to think my work is lost in the postal ethos. Although someone may have liked it so much, they took it home but that is still theft.

Your Blogging Type Is Thoughtful and Considerate

You're a well liked, though underrated, blogger.You have a heart of gold, and are likely to blog for a cause.You're a peaceful blogger - no drama for you!A good listener and friend, you tend to leave thoughtful comments for others.

What's" Your Blogging Personality?

Yep thats right I did a test thing but it was something to do whilst waiting forever for my work to load up - now you know what type of blogger i am. DO YOU AGREE?

Anyway been busy at work but want to update soon! I have had my 1st piece back from the contortionists call. Will post it up early next week so watch this space!

I have idea's

but it seems not the time to actually create them. I am think of the many things I want to do - write letters to my penpals, update this blog, reads books and create the things I want and it seems like I never get the time to do it all. I do however have this weekend free. I am not seeing Sam which is sad but we could both probably use the time to do things. So hopefully I will create some stuff this weekend. At the moment I am at my friends Dan and Dee's - we watched movies and had some drinks. They have both gone to bed but I am still up so am using this time to update what things I have online. Hopefully I will have craft ideas to follow soon so please come back and visit again.

August is here

and with it has come some nice weather here in the UK - the weather last weekend was gorgeous and I spent much time enjoying it whilst at an all day BBQ - much fun had.

However on the art front not much happened this weekend but I realise it had been a couple of weeks since I posted and I have done some art in that time, its just racking my brains to remember. What I do know is that I went to this place about half an hour away which has all these small shops, one's people have set up themselves and well there were a few craft shops there. So I had a nosey around and yes you can guess - I bought some bits. I bought some scrapbooking papers (not necessarily for scrapbooking) because so far I have not actually managed to get any scrapbooking done but I am sure it will get used for many things. I got some peel off's which gave me idea's which I wrote down but have not actually created yet!

I also bought some embellishments - some tiny feet brads for an ATC idea I had and some travel one's to make some ATC's and I did make one - a flying one. I also have a boat and a car so it will follow along the same theme.

I did start some bits for some colour Mail Art to send out in return for some that I have received. One is a rainbow card but I am still deciding what words to put on it. One was a colour mirage underneath with a black cut out over the top - like when you make snowflakes. I liked the effect.

I made a nie thank you card for my sister Cayleigh as she sent me cool Spongebob notepads from over in the states - for that I used some of the paper I bought on my shopping trip.

Lastly I made a shaker ATC which was in the July 4th theme so much Red, white and blue. We had use part of a specific image hence the 4 behind the glitter but I thought it looked like a fun ATC. So the winner of the draw has it winging its way to them and hopefully it'll make a nice part of their collection. I am planning on maybe making a couple more shaker ATC's but depends whether I feel I have a theme that fits.

Was waiting to put pictures on 1st before publishing but going to be a couple of days so will publish and add photo's later! Enjoy

Art last week

Thats right I actually managed to create some art last week. I made a lovely ATC out of some of those bits I bought a week or so ago. I have yet to have made use of the papers yet but I do have some plans for them. I made R is for Retro. When i saw those 3D stickers I immediately had any idea for this ATC, thinking of the colours and what I had that I could to add to it. I like it. Now I just have to think what I can do with the rest of the stickers. I am sure inspiration will hit me at some point. I finished off the work I had done for Bonnies Journal and this has now been safely sent off. I love the patterned paper I had and I like the things I used for texture. For the final E, I was orginally going to use sequins but I could not find them so I used felt instead. The felt probably has a nicer texture anyway. The theme of bonnies journal was favourite things and so I chose colour and texture. This is because I love colourful things and am always buying colourful stickers and stationary but as the same time i love feeling the texture of things. Thats right I am a toucher - I have been told of many a time by my fiancee for touching things as we walk around shops and such but i like feeling them - it makes a much more fun experience! The final thing I worked on was my 1st inchie - thats right I have finally created an inchie - it was to swap with Sherrie as we did it to encourage eachother to make one and I had received hers weeks ago so am happy to have finally made it. I like this but I found it very hard to work on such a small thing. The background was easy but in terms of picture and such I found this a real challenge so am unsure as to whether I will make more of these in the future. Depends if I can think of something to make that small. However with the limited time I seem to have to spend on crafting at the moment, this will probably fall on the back burner for a while as have journals to complete, ATC's to make for swaps and need to continue making pieces to send out in return for my Mail Art Colour swap! Maybe a free weekend or such will pop up soon. Who knows!

The Contortionists Call

No I don’t mean those people who can move themselves in some very interesting positions but in fact my friends band – The Contortionists. Having attended their gig on Saturday night they had a number of left over flyers, which gave me the idea to start this call. This is an altered image call – I will send you a copy of one of their flyers and I want you to take aspects of the flyer and make it into a piece of mail art.
The only rule is that you must use the bands name The Contortionists in the piece. What else you use from it is up to you. If you want to get a feel for the band www.contortionist-manifesto.com but it is totally up to you.

So to sign up for this wonderful call email: seussscat@hotmail.com

Size: No larger than A4
Media: Free
Deadline: October 15th 2007
Documentation to all.

Once you have received your flyer and looking to send your piece back, send to:

Seuss’s Cat
103 Rydal Drive
Bexleyheath
Kent
DA7 5EG

I look forward to seeing what wonderful things you all come up with which you will be able to view at: www.seussscat.blogspot.com

100 art things to do

My friend amy sent me an email with 100 art things to do in it at least 2 months ago and I saw it at the time thinking - fab this will be some fun things to do. I however forgot about the email in the depths of my inbox knowing I would get back to it at some point but not sure when. So I dug it out today and printed off the list to have another look at some of the things on it and which one's I might do. One's I am thinking of doing
1) Draw an image, copy it three times and colour each differently/with different colours - I always like this effect on things and love colour
6) Draw a short comic of 3-7 panels - could be interesting as never really done a comic before but could be a laugh
57) Draw an imaginary/existing building - I like castles!
68) Listen to a song and illustrate what it reminds you of or what visuals it bringd to your mind - love music so this is right up my alley
69) Close your eyes and draw 5 scribbles on a piece of paper. Then try to make a drawing or character out of each scribble. You can add on to each as much as you like, but you can't erase any part of the scribble - all the time I make dots and then join together to make a character, often a monster but its fun.

There are many others obviously but i think these are the ones I am going to start with - maybe you also would be interested to try?

Grace RAK

I originally started this ATC ages ago when running my butterfly swap, I drew the flower and added the butterfly stickers but was not happy with it. It looked empty and lacking. So it has sat on my bedside table for quite a while. However sometime last week i saw it again and decided that I would make use of it and finish it off, then I would have a card to send to Grace as a return RAK. So I looked at it for a while and decided to add the sun in the corner - this instantly made it feel more like an actual picture rather than just my drawing as such. I felt inspired by one of the other butterfly cards someone did for the swap where they did like a sunset background. Then I added the ladybird in the bottom corner to give it a garden feeling. I felt much better about the ATC after these addition and it has been sitting all sealed in the envelope to send to Grace since last thursday. I am planning on stopping in the post office today on the way to catching my train to rugby so fingers crossed for me getting it sent out!

Music is a helper

So thursday night I think I'll do some crafting before watching House at 9pm. I put some music on - Animal Collective and start thinking about what to create - I'm looking at some of the mailart I have received for my colour call and looking at Fabio Sassi's popart piece inspired me to make an abstract postcard. So I try and think about what I want to do which was when I got thinking about Lia's post about leftovers and little bits so I decide to use tiny pieces to make up a bigger all over piece - so I've got the music m,otivating me along and in spiration has hit me, I work quite quick, cutting little bits here and there, seeing where I think they should go and then gluing it down and the postcard was what came about of it. I really like it, makes me think of the sun but I like the colour and the way it all plays together. Its about 9pm by this time and I think I could watch house but I don't want to stop whilst I am on a roll. So i decide to follow on the same theme because I joined an abstract ATC swap and although I was going to doodle them having been inspired I go with what I've got and so I create the pieces on normal ATC sized card and I like them but feel something is missing. Thats when it hits me to cut bits of the backing card out and I think that makes them look even more abstract. I love them and I hope Ellen who is hosting the swap does too. So it was a motivated thursday and I feel like I am catching up and back into my art rather than feeling like I am behind.

ATC finally done

Thats right I finally did the 3rd and final ATC to be able to send off my 3 ATC's for Ellen's I love surprises part 2 swap. Only taken me like 2-3 months I do believe. But it is done now and after the postal strike I will be sending them off which makes me happy.

I made use of some of the cool old newspaper style adverts that were printed all over these paper pages that were sent to me by Sissy. They are for an art place I think and you can buy them in bulk - Sissy sent me like 15 and every now and then I have looked at the and thought, how can I make use of them to no avail. However when searching through the drawer yesterday I also found some wallpapers that I had been sent and I realised AH HA the adverts on top of the wallpaper would look fab. So i created the background of the ATC and the scoured the adverts to see what I could use. In the end I cut out two pictures of ladies of like the olden days, one appearing to wear a corset. Then I cut out some of the words of the adverts, layered the words on the back of different wallpaper and Alakazam I had an ATC!

Journal, postcards and more

Yes after much time of not finding any time to do art stuff I found time this sunday to do some serious art stuff. So much so that I actually finished my zines for serendipity's zine swap and I was very proud. I have had the photocopied pages lying around for a while but not cut up to size and not front covers for them. But I got myself on the job, cut all the pages to size which took some time but was totally worth it when I made the front covers and had finally finished them. I did the front covers in a variety of colours to make it more fun and i made envelopes for them all. I mailed them out this afternoon on my way between meetings so the 1st 10 are in the post heading to their destinatations. I make more copies of this zine to send to more people on the postal press list or I might think about making another zine. I am not sure as I had quite alot of trouble thinking of what to write about in my zine, plus there are so many people on the postal press list and I only sent to 10 so I may make another batch in the near future - depends whether I find some time to fit it in.

Apart from this I got round to making postcards for my swap on livejournal. These are my 2 summer themed postcards which I made for people and they went out in the post today as well. It was very satisfying to get so much mail in the post. Anything now I am going to leave until after friday so they won't get caught up in the backlog of post from the strike. I also had made my love postcard which went in the post end of last week.

Also over the weekend I did some work on one of the journals going round in our ATC group and I have nearly finished the pages for one. I was just waiting for some glitter and paint to dry and trying to find the sequins I have, that have disappeared. That was saturday and I was very glad to get that done as it means one more journal to do before I send them off. I am worried they have been delayed a bit but I have found little time in the evenings for art. I started a new work placement last monday and I have been super busy since then - this is a much more demanding job and so I have little time for others things during the day. I often don't get home until 6:30 - 7pm at which point I am knackered leaving me little inspiration and motivation to do some art stuff. Which is a shame and I am sure I will kind of have to force myself because once you get going you normally get into it but its that initial start. So once i have done the final piece of the journal page I shall put it on here for all to see. All in all a productive weekend!

Journal Page

I am away at the moment in the US and so have not been doing any art as have been spending time with my family here and visiting places. I went to the DC Holocaust museum which was depressing but very interesting. And tonight I am off to see a baseball game. However I did bring my journal with me and in the many hours I had at the airport due to being there very early I did create a page around what I could see and hear from my seat in the airport as shown above. Those were the seat across from me and there is a number of words based around what I saw, announcements made and just those everyday noises.

Zine and MailArt

I have finally finished writing my zine - it started as a typed zine but then when i received Serendipity's zine i decided I wanted to draw it and I restarted with all new topics. I have done all the pages and photocopied enough to make 10, i just need to trim all the pages and created my front pages. I am probably going to take the front pages with me to do in the states whilst on holiday as I can easily take pens with me to create them. Then when finished I can send to those who are in the states from there and it will cheaper althought possibly confusing to people. I am glad I finally have finished it as I do want to get it out to people. I am keeping the orginal colour copy so then I can make more once these 1st ten are done to send out to others on the postal press list. If you don't know what I am talking about check out http://www.serendipityart.squarespace.com as she is the lady that runs this list as such and the one that sent out the zine call. As for mailart I got a piece out to Em the other day is response to my colour call but I have been behind and need to get on this. I have people to send returns to and those who have sent me things, I have not forgotten I am working on it. The postcard I made Em i stitched and I thought the black background helped bring out the colours.

I also created a foot postcard for Michael Leigh's call for Feet were made for walking. My idea is based around all the surfaces our bare feet might touch as we walk places and i try to capture some of them on the foot. His blog with this call on is http://stickerset.blogspot.com and he has had a number of feet in so far. There is plenty of time left on this call so be sure to join in. I also discovered Keith Bates website where he is collecting pictures of all Mail Artists to include on his site - its very interesting as you can look for people you have traded with and see what they look like http://www.keithbates.co.uk/cameraderie.html People are listed under the country they are in. Add yourself if you haven't already.

Its been nearly a month ....

since i last posted which is terrible - plus its not like I haven't done stuff in that time.

I finished my butterfly swap and got it all sent out. You can see which 6 cards I kept for myself in seuss's cat's post. I have worked on pages for a 2nd journal and I still have another to do. I am not sure what to do for the journal pages but I am going to have a little think tonight.

For Tandy's journal I was just hit with inspiration when I found papers with the different months on. This immediately made me think of how Aprils showers are supposed to bring May's flowers and that was it, that was the idea for me. I used cotton pad and cut it into a cloud shape to make the cloud, there was already an umbrella on the paper so fitting. Then for the ATC i had the flower paper so knew that would be the focal point for the flowers. I wasn't sure what else to put on the ATC so thought stitched butterflies would be nice, I stitched 3 originally thinking I would put them all on the card but they were quite big so I put 2 on the ATC and then the extra one on the April side to join them a bit better. Flower looked best written on the ATC so as not to get in the way of the word MAY and also to add something extra to the card as it seemed slightly empty. To me the page still looked empty so I looked through my box of things and found the flower metal plate - this looked good and gave something extra to the may page.

I am a bit behind with some of my ATC's and need to have them done before I go to the states on friday so its going to be craft to the full these week, with packing as well :) I created 2 Cat ATC's for a kittie swap and I like them. I drew the cat for the black and white one and was impressed as turned out quite good. For the 2nd one I saw the stickers in Hobbycraft and the idea just came from that and thinking what stuff I had that I could put with it. Makes me think of the Jazz cats in the Aristocats. I love that film!

Art Journal

In one of my ATC groups we are doing an Art Journal round robin as such. Each of us created our own journals and have sent to the next person, then we will keep sending each journal we receive to the same person until we get our own back. Well I did my workings on Pats journal last night. We get 2 pages in the journals and they are somewhere between 4 x 4 and 6 x 6. The only other thing is that you must include an ATC on at least one of the pages.
Well inspiration hit me as such and I started by painting my 2 pages with green acrylic paint. Now this was going well and I had managed to not get much on the next person's pages until I had finished. Then was it that I realised that the paint as such had soaked into the twine binding the journal so there were green rings round the twine on every page, only a couple of millimetres but I felt bad about it as not my journal. Pat was cool with it and hopefully other will be able to cover it up on their pages. So then with black pen I drew leaves on the pages, medium sized until I had a pattern across the 2 pages as such. I then made a pocket for the right hand page for putting my ATC in. I glued it on and re-drew in the leaves so it looked the same! I had previous from Pat in my Yak Pak some metal ivy leaves which are on a chain of them but I took some off individually and glued them onto the page as well. For my ATC I used the same acrylic paint for the background, used cloth flowers and put them onto the card using brads and then drew on leaves. I then put an ivy leaf in each corner.